Medication approaches for treating Alzheimer's disease symptoms

Alzheimer's Treatment

Alzheimer disease is a ubiquitous form of dementia which is common among the elderly people. The person's abilities in undertaking his normal daily activities are affected by this disorder of the brain. This condition starts slowly where the parts of the brain controlling the memory thought and language are involved. It manifests itself from the initial forgetfulness of minor duties to the actual display of aggression and depression. There is no cure currently for this Alzheimer but the behavioral and cognitive symptoms can be treated by various drugs and other non-drugs forms. This paper will consider the different treatment for Alzheimer. Different medications and nutrition and other remedy like neurotransmitters will be analyzed. Various case studies of the treatments will be evaluated also.

Alzheimer medication

One of the widely used drugs for treatment of Alzheimer disease is Aricept which is an inhibitor of cholinesterase. Acetylcholine breakdown is stopped by cholinesterase inhibitors and it is a useful chemical for memory and other functions of the brain. The acetylcholine level is increased by these medications types. The deficiency of acetylcholine is observed in some brain areas in the Alzheimer disease and this explains some of the disease symptoms. The slowing of acetylcholine is the major purpose of Aricept. It is also useful for the treatment of Alzheimer for all the disease stages. Although it does not cure Alzheimer, there have been notable improvements on the mental functions. It has some mild side effects including vomiting, nausea, insomnia, fatigue, and weight loss (Standard Treatment, 2009).

The other medication is the Razadyne and Exelon which was formerly known as Reminly. The mechanism here is acetylcholine breakdown inhibition. Their effectiveness is realized when administered during the Alzheimer disease early stages. Their side effects are also similar to those of Aricept. From a study, thirteen elderly patients who died from the use of the drug led to the inclusion of the information in the label when it changed to Reminly's. Stroke and heart attack are some of the causes associated with these deaths (Doody, 2005, p.17).

Namenda is another medication prescribed for mild to severe forms of Alzheimer disease. It uses a different working mechanism unlike other treatments for Alzheimer where it regulates glutamate, a type of chemical component and therefore plays a protective function. In memory and learning functions, Glutamate plays this role by allowing some chemicals of the brain to enter the nerve cells of the brain for instance calcium which is useful in information storage while preventing other chemicals to enter. The activity of glutamate is regulated by Namenda because too much glutamate is fired off by the brain cells of people with Alzheimer. Therefore the ability of the brain in memory retrieval and information processing can be improved. Combining this drug with Exelon, Aricept or Razadyne there can be manifested improved benefit.

Not all medication prescribed for Alzheimer disease treatments have significant effect on the cognitive performance of the patient. A study to evaluate the efficacy of DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone) in treatment of Alzheimer disease whereby a randomized control group using placebo was used in the double blind study. There was a randomized treatment of 58 subjects who were treated for six months using placebo or DHEA 50 mg taken twice a day. The principal efficacy was to evaluate the cognitive performance. For the subjects who completed the treatment, there wasn't observable difference on the CIBI. Therefore the cognitive performance wasn't improved significantly by the use of DHEA though in the 3 months period only a fleeting effect might have been observed (Wolkowitz et al., 2003, p.1073.)

Neurotransmitters

The medicine world has not come to the complete Alzheimer's treatment where the disease is controlled and the brain fully restored. There are various clinical approaches using the neurotransmitters which have displayed excellent results and involves master neurotransmitters optimization of brain dopamine, serotonin, epinephrine and norepinephrine. Every brain and body function is controlled virtually by these neurotransmitters either directly or indirectly. Remarkable improvement is displayed by most of the Alzheimer patients in the cognitive functions of the brain when 5-HTP, cysteine, tyrosine and levodopa are used and the testing of neurotransmitters being the guide aimed at the brain function restoration and control of other symptoms. The brain cognitive function was restored profoundly in 15% to 20% of the patients.

Though the brain function deterioration is the usual focus of the Alzheimer patient, there are other problems which are active and the neurotransmitters are used for their treatment. These include: Sleep patterns where many of the patients of Alzheimer experience sleep patterns which are abnormal, staying awake during the night or sleep at daytime. The sleep pattern can be restored through the optimization of dopamine and serotonin. Inappropriate aggression, anger or outburst is also common in some Alzheimer patients and this can also be controlled with the optimization of dopamine and serotonin. Most patients experience inappropriate agitation which can be exhibit through physical or mental agitation. Depression is also a common symptom in Alzheimer patients which can be displayed as agitated depression. Though there isn't a drug which is efficient in the elderly depression control, by use of neurotransmitters optimization of dopamine and serotonin using testing guiding of neurotransmitters the agitation can be controlled. Other symptoms which can be remedied this way include psychotic state which is considerable problem characterized by patients talk about seeing and hearing things which are usually not present (Hinz, 2009).